The present invention relates to apparatus for preparing and furnishing receipts for customers of municipal or private parking lots, indoor garages or analogous institutions.
It is already known to install a dispenser at the entrance to a parking area (hereinafter called parking lot for short) wherein the opening of a toll bar which normally extends across the lane for entry of vehicles must be preceded by withdrawal of a ticket or card from the dispenser. The card contains or can be provided with encoded information. For example, the driver of a vehicle which is about to enter the parking lot must withdraw a card from the dispensing machine (such card is partially dispensed by automatic means so that it can be readily grasped and fully withdrawn by the driver), and the withdrawal of a card entails the actuation of a mechanism which lifts the toll bar so that the vehicle can enter the parking lot.
The card is normally perforated and its holes denote certain information such as the date of arrival of the customer, the time of the day and/or others. The information is encoded in such a way that it can be decoded by a machine, i.e., by an automatic reader which transmits information to a computer for the purpose of calculating the charge at the time when the vehicle is to be removed from the parking lot. When the customer desires to remove the vehicle, he or she must hand the card to a clerk (cashier) or insert the card into an automatic cashing machine wherein the encoded information is decoded by the reader. The charge which must be paid is calculated by the computer, and the amount to be paid is indicated in a window, on a screen or the like. When the amount is paid, the customer receives a ticket or a token which can be used to cause the toll bar at the exit from the parking lot to open. Alternatively, the toll bar at the exit is opened by the clerk or by the computer which has processed the card. The ticket and/or token contains information which can be only decoded by a machine.
The just described systems exhibit the drawback that the customer does not have a receipt for his or her expenditures except, of course, if the card is accepted by a clerk who writes a receipt upon request. The preparation of a receipt consumes much time and is possible only when the parking area is attended, i.e., if a clerk is stationed at the exit.
It was also proposed to maintain a supply of tickets each of which has a detachable stub serving as a receipt to the customer. The tickets are stored in the cashier's office and are handed out to customers upon payment of the fee. The customer detaches the stub and utilizes the other part of the ticket as a token for initiating the lifting of the toll bar at the exit of the parking lot. A drawback of such proposal is that the clerk cannot open the toll bar at the exit, i.e., such operation is invariably performed by the customer who must insert a portion of the ticket into a slot which is provided therefor in or at the exit gate. Moreover, the printing of two-piece tickets certain portions (i.e., the aforediscussed stubs) of which are detachable to serve as receipts is expensive and the customer is likely to forget to detach the stub from the ticket.